news-record.com

NEWS

Triad answers call for help from Haiti

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
(Updated 11:56 am)

GREENSBORO — Fabienne Pean spent all day Tuesday at doctors’ offices. Her parents, Joseph Francois and Freda Pean, survived the massive earthquake in Haiti last week. But they are dealing with the quake’s aftermath in more ways than one.

Freda Pean can’t eat meat. She saw too many dead bodies.

Joseph Pean’s blood sugar levels skyrocketed.

Nightmares keep both from sleeping.

Few people in the Triad can imagine what the Peans endured. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying to help.

Triad residents touched by the devastation in Haiti have responded in many ways. Doctors are taking time away from their practices to lend their medical expertise. Children are organizing lemonade stands. Strangers are donating money.

“It felt really good to be able to do something to help these people that are in great need,” said Raina Pratto, whose family held a yard sale Saturday for quake victims. “Because it’s frustrating to just watch it and not be able to do anything.”

 

l l l

 

Fabienne Pean was reunited with her parents Sunday in Brooklyn, N.Y. The couple had been at their home in Haiti to escape the winter cold.

There were feelings of happiness, relief, as well as sadness for the six cousins she lost.

“It was overwhelming, but it’s a good overwhelming,” said Fabienne Pean, a graduate student at N.C. A&T.

Despite the trauma, her parents have been able to share with her what they went through. Freda Pean was preparing to serve dinner when the earthquake started. Their house shook four times.

“The house across from them shook and collapsed and fell,” Fabienne Pean said.

The Peans spent four days living among the ruins in their yard. They along with other survivors sang and prayed, thankful that they had survived. Joseph Pean is known for keeping water at his house, and people flocked to him to quench their thirst, Fabienne Pean said.

On Tuesday, she helped her parents cope with their ailments, took them to doctor appointments and picked up prescriptions for them.

“It’s hard, but they’re alive,” she said.

 

l l l

 

Reid Marsh was in the Dominican Republic last week as part of the annual mission trip he makes with fellow members of High Point’s Covenant Church. They provide routine medical care to the country’s citizens.

But this trip was anything but routine. Two days into it, the quake hit Haiti. By Thursday, quake victims were making their way to the Dominican Republic’s public hospital in Barahona. Marsh helped patients get in and out of the hospital, kept supplies stocked and helped keep conditions sterile.

As victims were brought in, he listened to their stories.

“If you were there, you heard the facts,” Marsh said.

There was an 18-day-old girl with a cut stretching diagonally across her face. Doctors cleaned her wound and sewed it up, hopefully saving her from being disfigured, Marsh said.

There was a 6-year-old girl whose father got her to the hospital by thumbing rides from Port-au-Prince.

Her 2-year-old sister was killed in the quake, but the older child walked away with a cut across the top of her head that left a portion of her skull exposed, and a fracture in her left thigh, exposing even more bone.

Through his mission contacts, Marsh has heard that the 6-year-old’s head injury is healing well. Her leg is another story. It was an orthopedic problem the mission team couldn’t address. Dominican doctors were to operate on Monday. But given the length of time that has passed, Marsh worries .

“We’re concerned that six days afterward, it may have been too bad off to really save,” he said.

 

l l l

 

Dr. David Hopper took a job two years ago with Urgent Medical & Family Care in part because it would give him more time to dedicate to his mission work in Sudan, said his wife, Liza.

“He likes to be able to get up and go when there’s a need,” she said.

But Hopper is on another type of mission this week. He arrived in Haiti on Sunday and is among a team of medical professionals caring for the victims in Port-au-Prince.

Hopper has communicated with his wife through brief satellite phone conversations and text messages.

He saw patients all day Monday, his wife said, and described their wounds as “unimaginable.” Patients have a lot of broken and exposed bones, she said. Hopper plans to work in Haiti all week .

 

l l l

 

Not everyone can set a broken bone or clean a wound. But everyone has some junk they want to get rid of.

At least that’s what Kayla Pratto and her family thought when they organized a yard sale Saturday to help Haiti earthquake victims.

The sale raised $750. Local Rotary organizations have agreed to match the proceeds.

“By the time it gets to Haiti, it’ll be $3,000,” said Pratto’s 21-year-old daughter, Raina.

Pratto said there was overwhelming response to the yard sale. People donated furniture, bed linens and other household items. Some who stopped by the yard sale didn’t want to shop. They just wanted to make a donation.

“I think people are looking for a way to help, and this (yard sale) provided that,” Pratto said.

The Prattos weren’t the only family who used the long holiday weekend to raise money for Haiti.

Riley Bell, a 7-year-old student at St. Pius Catholic School, and her friends sold lemonade and baked goods Monday. They raised $118 for relief efforts.

 

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

AP Photo

Photo Caption: A U.S. Navy helicopter takes off in front of the National Palace in Haiti after members of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne (front), landed Tuesday in Port-au-Prince.

Want to help?

  • Abbotswood at Irving Park, a senior living community, will host a benefit concert for the Haiti earthquake victims 7 p.m. Thursday. The money will go to the CARE organization, which is responding to the Haiti disaster by supplying food, water and medical supplies. The concert, featuring the Sinai Mountain Ramblers, will be at Abbotswood, 3504 Flint St. Donations will be taken at the door.
  • Sojourn Community Church is collecting items for the quake victims through Monday. Visit www.haitiresponse.org for a list of items needed. Items can be dropped off during normal office hours at Lake Brandt Apartments, 2403 Lake Brandt Place and from 8 a.m. to noon Sunday at Kernodle Middle School. The supplies will be sent to Haiti via Missionary Flights International.

eMail Updates

Advertisement | Advertise with Us

Featured Ads

Search

Advertisement | Advertise with Us
Advertisement | Advertise with Us
Advertisement | Advertise with Us

News & Record Network Sites

User Tools

  • Social Networking
  • RSS
  • Share
  • Sign in to MyNR

Search